"Living Space," Justyna Kisielewicz, La Cometa Gallery, Miami,FL, 2025
- May 27
- 1 min read
Updated: Jun 1
Justyna Kisielewicz confronts the legacies of colonialism and our shared pursuit of freedom in Living Space, her most ambitious exhibition to date. According to the artist, the work “explores Polish history within the context of multiple sites of global oppression, including the colonial project in the Americas and our current climate crisis.” Her kaleidoscopic, atemporal oil paintings weave together disparate historical periods, lush Florida vegetation, a pantheon of symbolic animals, and the omnipresence of two masked figures decked in luxury fashion. Her menagerie includes mischievous monkeys, embroidered hummingbirds and orchids, undulating giant serpents and—in a nod to her adopted home—an alligator. These creatures and plants animate the scene, with each functioning as a symbol of human vices and virtues…
Kisielewicz’s art deconstructs historical narratives of the colonized, demanding the viewer’s attention through her idiosyncratic iconography: idealized landscapes, sumptuous designer silk scarves and magical creatures. In the face of our violent pasts and uncertain futures, Living space insists on our individual right to remember, to question, and to create a new world.
